One Classroom, Many Learners: Best Literacy Practices for Today's Multilingual Classrooms

Coppola, Julie, Ed.; Primas, Elizabeth V., Ed.

International Reading Association (NJ3)

This comprehensive volume provides important and timely information about how best to teach literacy to ELLs. Contributors have come together to share their ideas on important topics such as increasing engagement and motivation, improving content area instruction, addressing writing instruction, strengthening home-school connections, and providing professional development. Each chapter includes a review of relevant theory and research and classroom-based demonstrations of the connections among theory, research, and practice. Chapters contain examples of students' oral and written responses and, in many cases, teachers' reflections on how they implemented the recommended practices. Each chapter concludes with questions to help you think about how the information applies to your own classroom. Teachers at all levels of experience can use the practices explored in each chapter to teach students from a wide range of backgrounds, ages, grades, and English proficiency levels. This book is divided into three sections: (1) Language, Literacy, and Learning in Elementary Classrooms; (2) Language, Literacy, and Learning in Middle and Secondary School Classrooms; and (3) Improving Teaching and Learning in Multilingual Classrooms. Section I includes four chapters: (1) Word Study Assessment and Instruction With ELLs in a Second-Grade Classroom: Bending With Students' Growth (Donald R. Bear, Lori A. Helman, and Linda Woessner); (2) Connecting Language and Literacy Development in Elementary Classrooms (Youb Kim, P. David Pearson, Meredith McLellan, Andrea McPherson-Rumsey, and Zachary A. Konett); (3) Children's Literature in Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Classrooms (Nancy Roser, Jennifer Battle, and Melody Patterson Zoch); and (4) Creating Opportunities for "Grand Conversations" Among ELLs With Literature Circles (Gisela Ernst-Slavit, Catherine Carrison, and Jan Spiesman-Laughlin). Section II includes four chapters: (5) Implementing Scaffolded Reading Experiences in Diverse Classrooms (Michael F. Graves and Jill Fitzgerald); (6) Developing Language and Literacy in Science: Differentiated and Integrated Instruction for ELLs (Fay Shin, Robert Rueda, Christyn Simpkins, and Hyo Jin Lim); (7) Organizing Classroom Instruction That Supports ELLs: Promoting Student Engagement and Oral Language Development (Julie Nora and Julie E. Wollman); and (8) Supporting the Writing Development of High School ELLs With Guided Writing: Success Stories From One Classroom (Kathleen A.J. Mohr and Eric S. Mohr). Section III includes three chapters: (9) Collaborating With "Hard-to-Reach" Parents in an ELL Population: One Teacher's Exploration (Trini Lewis and Esmeralda Ramos); (10) My Language, My Culture: Helping Teachers Connect Home and School for English Literacy Learning (Patricia Ruggiano Schmidt, Brenda Gangemi, Grete O. Kelsey, Charles LaBarbera, Sharlene McKenzie, Carol Melchior, Barbara Merrick, Roseann Sunser, and Meg Williams); and (11) Preparing Middle and Secondary School Teachers to Teach Reading, Language, and Content: A Look at Professional Development Programs (Margarita Calderon and Russell Wasden). An author index and subject index are included.